How do you deal with instant death?

[Surfal]

My infrequently-played campaign has gotten to the point where instant death is a real and not-uncommon possibility. Clerics that can throw Destruction and Slay Living, wizards with Phantasmal Killer and Disintegrate, assassins with Death Attack...what's a poor fighter to do?

Not trying to be coy here, I'm really curious at how you maintain playability once instant death is available. A 13th level cleric with a 24 wisdom has a Destruction Fort save of 24. A 13th level fighter with a 20 Con has Fort save bonus of +13. He's got exactly a 50% chance of success. Classes without Fort as a primary save have horrific survival chances. Slay Living isn't as bad due to the touch and lower save, but its still got a good chance of success, and against non-Fort classes still greater than 50%.

How do you defend against this one round death? Its pretty hard to stop a determined spellcaster from casting in an even-up environment. Death Ward has a very limited duration, and is made useless if the bbeg has disintegrate.

So do you just swear off death effects at high levels to make the game playable, or does everyone carry amulets of Death Ward, or what?

 

[EricNoah]

My fighter/rogue has Death Ward armor and wears a spell resistance cloak. Without his magical gear, though, he'd be toast.

 

[ForceUser]

I think it's a DM's responsibility to not throw instant death encounters at PCs on a regular basis or as part of a random encounter, and also to give the PCs an opportunity to be aware of what they are about to face when they do.

 

[Flyspeck23]

I think it's a DM's responsibility to not throw instant death encounters at PCs on a regular basis or as part of a random encounter, and also to give the PCs an opportunity to be aware of what they are about to face when they do.

... and aware of countermeasures, like those pointed out by Eric above.

Really, instant death ain't that bad when the players know beforehand that there is such a thing as instant death.

Still, it's probably a good idea to not let every encounter involve the danger of instant death - not by a long shot.

 

[swrushing]

How do you defend against this one round death? Its pretty hard to stop a determined spellcaster from casting in an even-up environment. Death Ward has a very limited duration, and is made useless if the bbeg has disintegrate.

So do you just swear off death effects at high levels to make the game playable, or does everyone carry amulets of Death Ward, or what?

First, most any game i run gets HERO POINTS or some similar mechanic added. So its likely the "one screwed die roll" can be saved by using a HP.

Second, i tend now to use "instant death" as "you go to negative hit points". this keeps the "take him out of the fight" aspect a bit but turns "does he die?" into a dramatic consideration. Can someone get over to him in time?

 

[Kast]

EricNoah has the right idea. PCs have to protect themselves against magical attacks. Even then, inst-kills still happen. That's why there's resurrection.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

I say suck it up. I'm not here to coddle characters. Much like real life, instant death does happen. Save or dies are no different than a power attacke crit with a greataxe that drops the wizard in one swing. Except the poor wizard doesn't even GET a save.

 

[EricNoah]

I'm not here to coddle characters.

I am! Ok, not really, but I do tend to avoid save or die type situations. I don't find that fun, either as a player or a DM. I like to see a challenge, then figure out how to deal with it (whether I succeed or not is another matter entirely, but at least I had the chance), rather than hear "you died, nothing you can do about it, suck it up", especially if it's just based on random chance (like a saving throw). But that's just me.

 

[AuraSeer]

Second, i tend now to use "instant death" as "you go to negative hit points". this keeps the "take him out of the fight" aspect a bit but turns "does he die?" into a dramatic consideration. Can someone get over to him in time?

I do the same thing. Most instakill effects drop the target into the negatives, and he dies the following round on the attacker's initiative. (This assures that he won't automatically die if he is next in the initiative order.) It's boring enough if the player has to sit out the rest f the combat; it'd be even worse to make him sit out a whole game-day until the cleric prepares raise dead.

About the only things that are actual automatic kills are disintegrate and vorpal weapons. It would be pretty silly if somebody could get their head chopped off, yet have their life saved by a cure minor wounds.

 

[Hjorimir]

After I point and laugh you mean? I have them make a new character.